Any Bookkeeper Can Start a Bookkeeping Business by Doing This
There is some debate among bookkeepers about the best way to start a
bookkeeping business. Should you start part time and work your way to
full time? At what point should you quit your job? Here’s what I’ve
done to personally go from being employed to self-employed in less than
12 months.
As you’re probably aware, self-employed bookkeepers make much more per hour than employed bookkeepers. That means if you start a bookkeeping business you can be making from $10 to $20 more per hour than you make working for someone else. That’s huge!
So, for me, it simply made more sense to take advantage of this fact. So first I found a couple of bookkeeping clients and took care of their books during my evenings and weekends. I found them just by talking to everyone I came in contact with from casual acquaintances to accountants I met on the job.
Then, I cut back on my full time bookkeeping job to four days a week. It was a little scary, but with the extra money I was making on the side I was able to afford it. I now had time to find and service more bookkeeping clients, so I actively searched for more clients during my “day off”.
I sent out sales letters to new businesses by searching for new business license applicants. I placed classified ads in the newspaper advertising my bookkeeping services. I called other bookkeepers asking for referrals. I also called around to accountants and spoke to them about my bookkeeping services.
Before long, I had more bookkeeping clients than I had time, so I took another day off of my job. Now, I was fortunate in this regard. I realize that not everybody can do this. I had to convince my boss that I could still get the work done by working harder and more efficiently during the remaining three days a week I had at my job.
So how would this work in your situation? You might have to convince your boss to hire someone else part time and job share with them. This will actually make it easier for you to transition out of your job as your co-worker will be fully trained by the time you leave.
However, I really lucked out few months later as my boss then decided to shut down the office and let me do the bookkeeping from home. It was, a dream come true for me.
However, this kind of thing doesn’t happen every day, so let me tell you what I would have done had he not offered me this golden opportunity.
I would have found more bookkeeping work and took care of those clients during the two week days I had. I would have accomplished this by working evenings and weekends to get the work done. Once I had enough clients to substitute my income from my job, I would have quit my job and ran my bookkeeping business from home full time.
So, if you’re looking for a way that you can transition from employment to self-employment and start your own bookkeeping business, now you know how.
